Country Effects on Information Seeking in Global Electronic Networks
- PDF / 8,843,221 Bytes
- 24 Pages / 438 x 771 pts Page_size
- 91 Downloads / 161 Views
Abstract.We examinethe existenceof countryeffects on information seekingin responseto marketvolatility,and explorethe institutional factorsunderlyingtheseeffects. The empiricalsettingis the use of an electronicinter-banknetworkovertwelvemonthsby3,266bankslocated in twenty-fivecountries.We findsignificantdifferencesacrosscountries in banks'information-seeking behaviorin responseto marketvolatility, influencedbothby differencesin nationalindustryarrangements andby andnational nationalculture.However,nationalindustryarrangements cultureinfluencebanks'informationseekingin distinctways. INTRODUCTION A central question in internationalstrategy relates to the persistenceof countryeffectson firm-levelbehavior[Bartlett1986;Porter1990;Kogut 1993] in industriesthat are experiencing'global market fusion' [Kobrin forthcoming].This global integrationof marketsimpliesthatfirms,whichmay be locatedin differentcountries,competein the sameglobal arenaagainsteach other,oftenservingthe samecustomerfromtheirrespectivecountrylocations. In such a context,it is interestingto examinethe influenceof the countryof location on a firm'scompetitivebehavior,whether it be the firm's home country [Porter1990],or its host country.In particular,a key question is understandinghowdifferencesin institutionalfactorsarisingfromthecountry of location shape the behaviorof firms located in those countriesas they competeagainsteachotherin the sameglobalmarketplace. In this paper,we focus on the information-seekingbehaviorof firms,a key financialserviceindustries capabilityforperformancein information-intensive whichareparticularlysubjectto globalmarketfusion.Weexaminethe effect of country-levelinstitutional factors, in particularthose stemming from *SrilataZaheeris AssistantProfessorat the CarlsonSchool of Management,Universityof Minnesota.Herresearchinterestsincludedynamiccapabilitiesin multinationalcorporations, the impactof globalizationon organizations,and the liabilityof foreignness. **AkbarZaheer,AssistantProfessorat the CarlsonSchool of Management,Universityof Minnesota,is interestedin trustand uncertaintyin interfirmrelationships,firmcapabilities frominterfirmnetworks,and the strategicuse of informationtechnology. An early version of this paper was presented at the Academy of International Business meeting in Boston, 1994. We are grateful to Larry Cummings, Stefanie Lenway, Elaine Mosakowski, and Shaker Srinivasan for useful comments. All errorsare our own. We are indebted to Reuters for making the data availableto us. Received: August 1996;Revised: November 1996; Accepted: November 1996. 77
Palgrave Macmillan Journals is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Journal of International Business Studies ® www.jstor.org
78
JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONALBUSINESSSTUDIES, FIRST QUARTER1997
differencesin industryarrangementsandnationalcultureacrosscountries,on behaviorin the currency-trading information-seeking industry. Previousstudiesexaminingcross-nationaldifferencesin firm behaviorhave typicallyfocused on organizationsin diff
Data Loading...
